In this episode I get a brand new
profile picture.
Hi everybody. Welcome to
another episode of Exploring Photography
right here on AdoramaTV.
I'm Mark Wallace, and there's a little secret
that you might know, and that is I desperately
need a new profile picture for my social
media accounts, and I really don't want
to create a self-portrait like I did
before, and so I have three spectacular
photographers that are joining me right
now. I've got Mr. Daniel Norton, Mr. Seth
Miranda, and Mr. Gavin Hoey, and here's
how this is going to work. I have given
them carte blanche, to do whatever they
want. They can shoot any kind of profile
picture they want to, and then I'm going
to post their results on my Instagram
account that's listed right here, and
then you get to vote on your favorite,
and whichever one gets the most votes
will become my profile picture. So the
pressure is on these guys, and so who
wants to go first!?
It's Mr. Daniel Norton, we're going to do
that right now. Hey guys, I get to be
first here so I'm going to take advantage
of all the equipment. Use up all the
batteries before everyone else gets to
go. That's my trick here to get the best
shot, but I've got Mark here! I'm just
using some view flats here. Create a
giant, giant, fill-light.
I mean I set it
up like this. It's actually a pretty safe
light, if you want to just shoot say somebody
who's you know not super beautiful, but
Mark is beautiful. So you know what that
means we added the beauty dish, so this
is going to give him shape and form.
I actually figured each light out
separately. This is my fill, giving a nice
spread across shape and form. With this
one we're going for a really clean shot.
So we know what Mark looks like,
everybody knows who Mark is.
I don't need to over, over sell it, no cameras in the
shot. None of that kinda stuff, just
straight up, nice, pretty shot.
Of his beautiful blue eyes...
So even though Mark is a really fun guy,
I hang out... you know? I want to shoot
this really serious, kind of a really
formal portrait. So we are going very straight face very
intense with the eyes.
You know to give a
different vibe to it.
Make it a little different. So plus I think your current
pictures a little serious, because your
probably thinking about why am I metering
myself! Exactly. So, yeah. So we're going a
little more serious here, you know when
you shoot portraits of somebody. People
have many facets. So sometimes you go
serious, sometimes funny, mysterious.
I'm Seth Miranda, and from my set up
against the great Mark Wallace. Not
against him but against Gavin and Daniel
for his amazing profile. So I thought
about he said. I need circular I need
square, so I want to go to the vignette
look in the background. So the first
thing I did was. I pulled out this
decorative great, so that it has a little
bit of a tech feel behind him, but I'll
have a texture. It's not just a seamless
paper that smooth, blue gel behind him
tight reflector on a B2 pack.
I did a key-light, with a grid, so there's
a two-foot Octa. I had to flag it. I had
to keep it tight, cause once this light
hits this grid. I lose that silhouette, I
lose the whole feel of that circle. I'm
making behind him... at the vinette of
light, and just to break him out from
that a little more,
I dusted it in a little bit of life, with
the strip 1 by 3 and another B2 and
because it's such a tight light, and
because all the light here is just going
into a void. I'm pulling in the Brooklyn
reflector, you guys know so well right. So
with Daniels Hasselblad. I'm just going to
cap off some frames. So Mark, can you do me
favour, just look a little bit to the light.
Turn your head to me a little bit.. slightly
relax a little bit! Remember this is,
this is fun, remember?
Yeah!
And we're just kicking off frames or
letting him relax
and we're just going to get Mark Wallis
being the best Mark Wallis he can be.
Which is oh, not bad, definitely not bad
and if you see, we just make, we're just
framing him out with a nice silhouette
circle, and in the end we have a sculpted
face. He's not flat, he's separate off the
backdrop and he can use as a square or a
circle, or a tiny little thumbnail.
So I'm Gavin Hoey, and I get the
photograph Matk Wallace... fantastic.
For his shot now, this is going to be a social media
picture. So it needs a few things. It
needs some character, and I thought for
that, well Marks a bit of an expert at
lighting. So let's give him some lights
to actually hold. Like they're sort of
ray guns. Also it needs to work in
various formats. So I've weirdly set my
camera for the first time ever, to a
square format. Although because I'm
shooting raw my final pictures will be
rectangular, but I will see them in the
viewfinder as square. One of the
advantages of the mirrorless system, like
my Olympus. That's fine. The last and most
important thing by far is Mr. Mark Wallace
himself, because if he just stands there
going. I'm really bored, and you see that
social media picture. You're not going to
follow him. So we need some excitement.
Right? So here's the lighting scenario.
I've got a softbox that's a reasonable
size. It's going to be a headshot. Only so
I've turned it on its side. So it's just
going to light his head and shoulders.
That's all that needs to be lit. That's
going to be the light on Mark's face. You
can see that he is holding a couple of
Profoto lights, those he's actually going to
fire at me. Yeah it's going to be fun. Okay?
So let's see how this works, just like a
test-shot, and see what we get right here.
Here we go Mark. Okay Grrr...
Okay so test shots, you get the idea
immediately how this is going to work. I'm
going to get some flare. There's going to be
some post-processing to bring back
some of the contrast, but that doesn't matter.
What's way more important right now, is
that we have some fun. Because if you're
not having fun with your photography...
you're not doing it right!
Ready for some fun, ready for some fun?
Let's do this. I'm ready.
Okay good. I'm just going to change the power of the
lights. That's a good point. When you're
doing this. It's a little bit dangerous,
things are going to go wrong. Not every
picture is going to be a winner. So look at
the pictures and change something.
I'm going to change the power of these lights
down ever so slightly. Okay, let's change,
they're on separate groups, so we'll just
do each group down a stop, and do the
same again. Here we go again. So these
are a little bit less powerful. It gives
me a different look and feel for the
slightly less flarey shot, I get to see a
bit more of Mark's face. You can decide
whether that's a good or a bad thing in
the comments below. Awesome we are pretty
much done. We could stop right there and
have a winning shot. Right done.
There you go. That's how you do it, quick in out get
the shots.
That was tons of fun, thank you
guys so much.
I have listed their
Instagram accounts. All their social in
the comments section of this video. So
make sure you check these guys out make
sure you watch them on AdoramaTV and on
Instagram and live in it.... they're
everywhere. So check it out, and don't
forget to vote on your favorite picture...
because pride is on the line! Thanks
again for joining me, and I will see you
again next time.